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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The Tables Get Turned: Dr. Aafia Siddiqui and Raymond Davis by Cindy Sheehan

Turn about is fair play.

American Proverb

In February of 2010, based on the flimsiest of physical evidence and rampant anti-Muslim bias, a Pakistani woman, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, was convicted in US Federal Court in Manhattan for ATTEMPTED "murder of an American" and sentenced to 86 years plus life in prison. The terms “kangaroo court” and “railroaded” spring easily to mind when I think about the case of Dr. Siddiqui. I wrote extensively about the case in an article called: Injustice in the Age of Obama.

The final chapter has not been written in the tale of Dr. Siddiqui and just recently a bold Senator from Pakistan has offered to come to the States to meet with everyone concerned with the Siddiqui case, as Senator John Kerry recently did in Pakistan in reference to the case of Raymond Davis.

Raymond Davis is a confirmed CIA asset who apparently was given diplomatic credentials who shot and killed two Pakistani (one in the back as he was fleeing) men in Lahore in January, claiming he was worried he was about to be robbed. A third Pakistani was struck and killed by a second CIA asset who rushed to Davis’s aid, even though, ironically, it wasn’t Davis who needed the aid—it is the people of Pakistan who needed protection from the CIA.

Not only was a “Diplomat” carrying a Berretta which killed the two Pakistanis, his car contained a loaded Glock, GPS equipment, several full magazines and a telescope. Weird cargo for a rental car—the car Davis was driving wasn’t even a consular car, which further undermines the contention that he was under some kind of Diplomatic immunity.

According to a UK Mail article on February 16th, US president Barack Obama said, “Davis' detention risked further straining relations between the countries,” and went on, “local prosecution of a diplomat posed a threat to American diplomacy in general.” Oh really?

The people of Pakistan have been up in arms against their government for years now, viewing it as a collaborator in connection to the CIA controlled drone bombings in Northern Pakistan which are responsible for killing hundreds, if not thousands of civilians, along with the sprinkling of suspected "al Qaeda." The government of Pakistan routinely “denounces” such US attacks, but allows some of the drones to be launched from Shamsi Airfield in Pakistan. Speculation has been rampant that Davis was deeply involved in this program especially since there were no drone strikes from the day of his arrest on January 27 until February 21 (after the year began with about one drone strike every five days). Mere coincidence? Weather? Hm?

(Just as I am writing this article, a news item comes in from the UK Telegraph stating: A US intelligence agent arrested after shooting dead two men was the acting head of the CIA in Pakistan and had been gathering intelligence for drone attacks, according to intelligence sources).

So, our suspicions that Davis worked for the CIA were not only true, but they were mega-true. If he has been “acting head” of the CIA in Pakistan--in 2010, 118 drone attacks were made that killed about 1000 people. The January 27th incident—that was fishy from the beginning—has the stench of black ops all over it. There is also speculation that Davis worked to recruit native-born CIA assets to stir up trouble to justify the drone bombing program and the continuing US War on Terror—there must be Terror to keep the War going, after all.

The people of Pakistan are also rightly inflamed about the brutal treatment of Dr. Siddiqui and the profound dearth of justice that followed from her arrest for “attempted murder of Americans” (not one person was even scratched in the room that Dr. Siddiqui supposedly sprayed with M-16 gunfire) to the foregone verdict of guilty at her “trial.”

So far, Pakistan has refused to recognize Davis’s diplomatic immunity and Senator Kerry was sent back to the US empty-handed from his diplomatic trip to see about the release of Davis. Indeed, the news from Pakistan on February 23rd is that Pakistani courts will handle the Davis matter. Even though he doesn’t deserve it, I hope he gets better treatment than Dr. Siddiqui received at the hands of the Barbaric Americans. I guess everybody deserves justice, though—even murderous Americans who deny it to other people.

Coincidentally, I wrote this in my October 2010 article about Dr. Siddiqui:

Even if Dr. Siddiqui did shoot at the Americans, reflect on this. Say this case was being tried in Pakistan under similar circumstances for an American woman named Dr. Betty Brown who was captured and repeatedly tortured and raped by the ISI - here in the states that woman would be a hero if she shot at her captors - not demonized and taken away from her life and her children.

Well, my scenario has come true, except it wasn’t Dr. Betty Brown who was captured, tortured, and repeatedly raped by the Pakistani ISI--equivalent of the CIA—no—it was a CIA agent who was arrested for actually committing a crime and there has been no report of Davis receiving ill treatment at the hands of the Pakistanis, apparently that’s our specialty here in the US. Of course there’s no outcry here in the US, (except from the State Department and Obama who want this murderer released), but the recent event in Lahore and the continuing aftermath should be HUGE news, but somehow, is not.

Even though most Americans have no idea who these people are, everyone in Pakistan intimately knows the stories of both and won’t rest until Davis is tried in a Pakistani court of law and Siddiqui is repatriated back to her home.

The weak government of Zardari in Pakistan constantly wishes to placate and stall every side in every debate, but if something comes between its money from the US (remember, that’s how US puppets get wealthy) and the people of the nation, (remember, Mubarak), the money will almost always win

There has been some unofficial talk in Pakistan about trading Raymond Davis for Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Even though, I want Dr. Siddiqui out of US prison and to accept such an offer so she could be home with her surviving children, trading a cold-blooded CIA killer for an innocent woman would be another miscarriage of justice—but even if the deal was offered by Pakistan, I wonder if the US would accept?

No matter what happens to Davis in Pakistan, trying him would be ONE for justice and ZERO for the Empire during this inning.

I can only imagine the hissy fit the Empire is throwing right now in response to its puppet, for the time being, dancing to a different master.

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Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox is an independent online radio show and blog that strives to be completely free from establishment political ideology and focus on a message of peace, justice, environmental sustainability and economic equality. To this end, we provide educational and inspirational programs on topics related to these issues and we organize/promote actions working towards peace, justice, and environmental sustainability.